Eagles Of Death Metal Make Emotional Return To Paris

Eagles Of Death Metal Make Emotional Return To Paris

Eagles of Death Metal made an emotional return to Paris for their first full gig in the city since November’s attack on the Bataclan Theatre.

89 fans were murdered by Islamic extremists in November, and survivors were invited to this performance at the Olympia Theatre.

According to the BBC the show featured 89 seconds of silence in honour of those who died.

During an emotionally charged evening the band’s frontman, Jesse Hughes, reportedly opened by saying ‘Bonsoir Paris, we’re ready for this!’

Josh Homme also appeared on stage to play drums, despite normally restricting his involvement to recording.

Speaking to the BBC after the gig Bataclan survivor Mathias Von Euw said:

It was a really good concert, full of emotion. It was a huge memory for us. It was a better concert than they do usually, because I think they had to celebrate something and they just make it better than ever.

Patrick Moore, a British survivor, added:

The music definitely won over – terrorism didn’t.

The gig was preceded by an interview from Hughes in which he questioned French gun control laws.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tPnEuxHcHY

During the interview with iTele Hughes said:

I think the only way that my mind has been changed is that maybe until nobody has guns everybody has to have them.

Because I don’t ever want to see anything like this ever happen again and I want everyone to have the best chance to live and I saw people die that maybe could have lived.

I wish I knew for sure if they could have had a better chance because there were some real angels, real wonderful people in that show that aren’t alive today and I really wish they were.

Hopefully that won’t prove the case and survivors will now have a sense of closure, and the sense of unease at entering intimate gig venues will begin to disappear.